Trust Issues
by KnightlyWordsmith
Summary: Even with Eta and Iota long gone, they still manage to affect Carolina more than anyone knew.


**A/N-** I was re-watching Season 10 when this popped into my head. It's nothing special, just another look into Carolina's head, and my little head canon about Eta and Iota. I'm not entirely happy with it, but I haven't posted anything in ages so here it is.

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_"I don't know what's gotten into you Carolina, but you'd better figure out the difference between your enemies, and your friends."_

The years Carolina had spent searching for the Director on her own had included many long nights holed up in a safe house of some sort. She'd lie there waiting for the next day to come, hoping it would the one to offer some clue of where to go next. Those nights she had been alone with only her thoughts, and she contemplated many things.

Over the course of many such nights she slowly pieced together the Director's scheme for assigning AIs to agents.

North and Theta was obvious. Theta was quiet, reluctant, shy. He needed to be nurtured, and cared for. North was patient, kind and compassionate and the one who could encourage Theta to reach his full potential.

Delta, a sturdier and more stable AI, was assigned with a more direct purpose. York may have had a natural talent for picking locks, but Delta's analytical nature was invaluable when it came to cracking codes of all sorts.

Gamma, the sly, deceitful, manipulative one. Always looking to gain the upper hand. Always finding the things that made people tick. So alike Wyoming's wheedling personality, the two got along just _swimmingly_.

Tex and Omega. Carolina didn't have to contemplate that one long. Tex had always been lethal with her vast array of skills. Why not amplify that with the anger to make her unstoppable?

Then there was Sigma who had never, ever been meant for Maine. Maine, for all his sheer size and brute strength had a malleable mind. He had no chance of resisting Sigma's whispered promises of power.

Creativity, but so much more dangerous than just that. Sigma was creativity laced with a burning ambition. Carolina's ambition. With his flame she would have been number one.

Finally there was Eta and Iota. Loyalty and distrust.

Whereas most of the AIs were assigned in order to amplify traits which the agents already possessed, this was another one of the Director's experiments. Could an AI shape the personality of its host? Mould it into something more useful?

Eta's loyalty was to be given to South. Perhaps he would help integrate her into the team. Bring her back into the fold, and have her work more smoothly with the others.

Iota's distrust of everything was to help Wash, who was at the time too innocent and naïve for war. He was too trusting, too willing to accept the good intentions of others. Ironically enough he never got that lesson from Iota, but received it soon enough from Epsilon.

The two AIs had very cross-purposes but it wasn't until they were both in her head that Carolina knew what they were. It wasn't until too late that she knew what innate emotions they were formed of.

When that name was shouted by the man who was once her father, all hell broke loose in her skull.

The distrust of the world, clashed with the fiercest of loyalties, screaming in her head, tearing through her thoughts, her mind, her soul.

The two were never meant to coexist. They were like the poles of the most powerful magnets in the world, constantly repelling one another, but were trapped in the small confines of her mind.

Even when she woke, and the voices had stopped their screaming she couldn't escape. They were still there, each quietly beseeching her to listen him and only him. One telling her to stay true to those around, to remain loyal. At the same the other insisted that no one, not even those who cared about her could ever be trusted.

She had to steel herself against them both, recede deeper and deeper into herself.

Distrust and loyalty. Trust and faithlessness. She cut herself away from it all, until it meant nothing to her. She learned to exist in a void between them so the voices of the AIs could no longer affect her.

So when Washington accused her of not knowing friends from enemies, his words rang in her head for a long time. Why was it so hard for him to see why she had such difficulty with the task?

Friends you had to trust, and Carolina hadn't understood what trust was for a long time.

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**A/N- **

I finally have some free time to write again, so hopefully this little burst of inspiration will help me get along with my other projects. As always, I love to know what you think (:


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